This invention relates to couplings and terminals for optical waveguides.
Various couplings have been proposed for coupling optical fibres or bundles of optical fibres, where the ends of the waveguides abut one another. This is commonly referred to as splicing of the optical fibres. It is necessary axially to align the ends of the individual fibres or bundles of optical fibres with one another to provide the required degree of optical coupling between the fibres, and, heretofor, various forms of coupling devices have been proposed to provide this axial alignment and thus maximise the optical coupling between the fibres. Such coupling devices are often rather complicated and thus relatively expensive or involve the use of somewhat complicated methods of mounting the fibre ends in the coupling devices.